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DEFEATING    THE    VOTERS 
AT    THE    POLLS 


BY 


MARJORIE  SHULER 


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STEBBINS  &  COMPANY 

BROOKLYN.    NEW   YORK 

ti27  Union  Street 


Oi£ 


DEFEATING    THE    VOTERS 
AT    THE    POiLSiiCi 


BY 

MARJORIE  SHULER 


STEBBINS    &    COMPANY 

BROOKLYN,    NEW    YORK 
liST    Union    Street 


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Copyright,  1922 

BY 

STEBBINS  &  COMPANY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  VOTE  AND  THE  BALLOT 

What  Is  a  Vote? — A  vote  is  the  expression 
of  opinion.  It  is  of  value  only  when  there  is  an 
honest,  efBcient  means  for  recording  it.  The 
chief  problem  of  a  democracy  is  the  creation  and 
maintenance  of  such  means,  so  that  for  each  citi- 
zen there  shall  be  one  vote ;  and  not  less  than  one 
vote,  because  the  citizen  has  been  defrauded  of 
his  rights  or  is  too  indifferent  to  exercise  them; 
nor  more  than  one  vote,  because  he  has  abused  the 
most  sacred  gift  of  a  free  government  and  par- 
ticipated in  trickery  and  corruption. 

Historical  Development  of  Voting.  —  In 
early  tribal  and  primitive  governments  the  ballot 
was  regarded  as  the  natural  concomitant  of  mem- 
bership in  the  state.  It  was  a  birthright,  a  sym- 
bol of  dignity  and  distinction.  On  the  day  ap- 
pointed for  elections  those  with  the  right  to 
vote  went  as  a  matter  of  course  to  the  great  open 
spaces  set  apart  for  the  polls.  There  they  signi- 
fied their  choice  of  candidates  by  raising  their 

67 

520H95 


68 '•:*-*'.       The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

h^ridsf  or  by  calling;  piit  as  they  walked  single  file 
by  the  counters^  Although  there  was  not  at  that 
time  so  much  indifference  and  neglect  on  the  part 
of  those  entitled  to  vote  as  today,  there  were 
other  forms  of  election  evils,  such  as  the  great 
feasts  to  influence  the  masses  of  citizens,  and  pri- 
vate arrangements  between  political  leaders  by 
which  the  results  were  largely  determined. 

With  the  growth  of  democratic  ideals,  the  bal- 
lot came  to  be  regarded  as  an  inalienable  right, 
such  as  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
On  these  grounds  extensions  of  the  suffrage  have 
been  granted  in  the  United  States.  In  their  first 
constitutions,  only  two  of  the  original  states, 
North  Carohna  and  Pennsylvania,  conceded  to 
all  taxpayers  the  right  to  vote.  Kentucky,  com- 
ing into  the  union  in  1791,  and  Vermont,  in  1792, 
gave  universal  manhood  suffrage,  but  it  took  the 
first  thirty  years  of  the  next  century  to  make  that 
practice  general.  Many  states  at  first  barred 
Jews  and  Catholics,  Baptists  and  those  of  other 
denominations.  Atheists  were  prohibited  from 
holding  office.  Religious  professions  were  a 
necessary  precedent  to  voting.  For  instance  in 
Delaware,  the  voter  was  required  to  proclaim  his 
belief  in  the  Trinity  and  the  divine  inspiration  of 
the  Bible.  Not  only  have  these  discriminations 
been  abolished,  but  Indians,  negroes,  naturalized 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  69 

foreign-born  and  women  have  been  given  the 
franchise. 

Some  Old  Penalties  for  Crime  against  the 
Ballot.— « That  electoral  abuses  existed  in  the 
early  days  of  the  republic  is  evident  from  the 
penalties  which  the  state  constitutions  imposed 
for  such  frauds.  For  bribery  there  were  fines 
from  ten  to  fifty  pounds,  or  twice  the  amount  of 
the  bribe.  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  nullified 
the  election  in  which  bribery  was  proved  to  have 
been  used.  New  Jersey  and  Rhode  Island  pun- 
ished the  offenders  by  disfranchisement  and  tak- 
ing away  the  right  to  hold  office  and  to  give  evi- 
dence in  a  court  of  justice.  Rhode  Island  re- 
quired officers  to  swear  that  they  abhorred  brib- 
ery, and  also  nullified  an  election  if  it  was  proved 
that  any  vote  had  been  cast  illegally.  Fraud,  re- 
peating and  falsification  of  returns  were  all  pro- 
vided for  by  penalties,  Rhode  Island  being  most 
severe  with  a  provision  for  a  fine  of  hve  pounds, 
forty  stripes  on  the  naked  back  or  imprisonment 
in  the  jail  or  stocks.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
refused  bail  to  such  prisoners. 

Today  voting  has  come  to  be  generally  looked 
upon  not  as  a  privilege  of  birth  or  property,  or 
even  a  right  so  much  as  a  duty  or  service  to  the 
state.  It  is  apparent  that  some  voters  are  wiser, 
better  educated,  more  fit  to  formulate  opinions 


70  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

than  others.  And  yet  the  purposes  of  govern- 
ment are  not  served  by  barring  out  these,  rather, 
on  the  contrary,  by  aiding  them  in  order  to  bring 
about  an  intelligent,  loyal,  honest  electorate, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  a  democracy. 

Election  Day  Ceremonies. — Early  political 
history  points  out  many  ceremonies  incident  to 
election  day.  Feasts  were  a  frequent  feature  and 
some  of  the  American  colonies  even  provided  for 
election  day  dinners  out  of  the  public  funds. 
Prayers  and  election  morning  sermons  were 
usual,  these  being  supplanted  later  in  American 
history  by  patriotic  addresses.  Many  persons  to- 
day urge  a  return  to  the  custom  of  patriotic  mass 
meetings  and  orations  as  a  means  of  emphasizing 
the  civic  importance  of  the  day. 

The  Development  of  the  Ballot. —  The  open 
ballot  gave  great  opportunity  for  corruption, 
whether  it  was  the  Roman  citizens  herded  into  the 
sheep  enclosures  on  the  Campus  Martins,  calling 
out  their  choice  of  candidates,  or  the  English  lords 
gathered  on  great  grassy  fields  to  raise  their 
hands,  or  the  Pilgrim  fathers  dropping  black 
and  white  beans  into  jars,  or  the  southern  planta- 
tion owners  telling  their  votes  to  the  sheriffs  who 
called  at  their  gates,  or  the  Kentuckians  arraying 
themselves  in  long  lines  to  show  their  allegiance. 

Yet  with  all  of  its  apparent  evils  there  was 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  71 

much  opposition  to  giving  up  the  open  vote.  In 
1839  John  Randolph  of  Virginia  said,  "I  scarcely 
believe  that  we  have  such  a  fool  in  all  Virginia  as 
even  to  mention  the  vote  by  ballot,  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  adoption  of  the  ballot 
would  make  any  nation  a  nation  of  scoundrels,  if 
it  did  not  find  them  so."  Although  most  of  the 
other  states  had  adopted  the  ballot  by  1800,  Ar- 
kansas was  forty-six  years  later  in  giving  up  the 
viva  voce  vote.  Missouri  and  Virginia  kept  it 
until  the  sixties  and  Kentucky  until  1890. 

The  introduction  of  the  ballot  did  not  establish 
the  secrecy  of  elections,  as  was  soon  discovered. 
In  its  early  days  the  voter  who  entered  the  elec- 
tion place  was  first  enrolled.  He  then  marked 
his  ballot,  and  his  choice  was  announced  by  the 
judges,  whereupon  the  candidates  or  their  rep- 
resentatives who  were  present  rose  and  thanked 
him,  and  the  spectators  on  that  side  applauded. 

It  was  easy  for  any  observer  to  note  how  a 
man  voted,  since  the  political  parties  prepared 
their  own  ballots  and  printed  them  with  vivid  col- 
ors and  flaming  emblems  so  that  they  could  be  dis- 
tinguished by  illiterate  voters.  By  this  same 
token  those  who  bribed  voters  could  accompany 
them  to  the  ballot  box  and  make  certain  that  they 
voted  as  they  had  been  paid  to  do.  Various  other 
abuses  crept  in.    Political  leaders  who  wanted  for 


72  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

some  reason  to  betray  one  of  their  own  ticket 
might  print  ballots  with  the  usual  colors  and  em- 
blems, but  substituting  another  name  for  the  one 
marked  for  defeat.  The  illiterate  or  careless 
voter  would  not  detect  the  substitution  and  would 
cast  the  ballot  as  printed.  Rival  parties,  too, 
would  print  their  own  names  on  ballots  resem- 
bling those  of  the  opposing  party,  so  that  the  un- 
wary voter  was  constantly  casting  ballots  which 
did  not  at  all  represent  his  opinion. 

The  Australian  Ballot. —  The  evils  that  have 
been  mentioned  led  to  the  campaign  for  the  Aus- 
tralian ballot,  to  put  all  printing  and  distribution 
of  ballots  into  the  hands  of  the  state  and  especi- 
ally to  insure  secrecy  in  voting.  Again  there  was 
much  opposition.  David  B.  Hill,  governor  of 
New  York  state,  approved  private  polling  booths, 
but  in  1881  vetoed  a  bill  to  this  intent  because  it 
also  provided  for  state  control  of  the  printing  and 
distribution  of  ballots.  This  he  declared  would 
give  dangerous  powers  into  the  hands  of  partisan 
election  officials  and  would  tend  to  disfranchise 
illiterates  who  were  in  the  habit  of  being  guided 
by  their  party  ballots. 

In  Nebraska  the  Australian  ballot  was  opposed 
in  the  late  eighties  on  the  openly  stated  grounds 
that  a  prohibition  amendment  was  pending  the 
next  year  and  might  be  carried  imless  the  liquor 


The  Foter  at  the  Polls  73 

advocates  could  make  sure  that  the  voters  fol- 
lowed their  instructions. 

The  Australian  ballot  which  was  first  adopted 
by  Massachusetts  in  1888,  and  is  now  in  use  in 
some  form  or  another  in  every  state,  has  the  fol- 
lowing distinguishing  features :  The  names  of  all 
candidates  of  each  political  party  of  certain  num- 
erical strength  are  printed  on  a  separate  ballot  at 
public  expense;  sample  ballots  may  be  circulated 
previous  to  election  day,  but  the  official  ballot,  the 
only  one  counted  at  the  polls,  is  never  given  out 
beforehand,  being  distributed  by  sworn-in  offi- 
cials to  each  citizen  as  he  presents  himself  to  vote ; 
ballots  must  be  marked  in  voting  booths  provided 
for  the  purpose  and  in  absolute  secrecy. 

No  state  may  be  said  to  use  the  system  entirely 
in  its  original  form.  The  various  modified  forms 
may  be  divided  into  two  groups,  the  party  column 
ballot  and  the  office  column  ballot. 

The  party  column  ballot  lists  the  names  of  the 
nominees  under  the  name  and  usually  the  emblem 
of  the  party.  This  is  supposed  to  be  a  great  aid 
to  the  illiterate  voter,  who  looks  for  the  eagle  or 
the  sun  and  votes  for  all  the  names  under  it. 
Some  of  the  parties  vary  their  emblem  with  the 
state.  The  Prohibition  party,  for  instance,  uses 
a  hatchet  in  Alabama,  a  house  and  yard  in  Dela- 
ware, a  phoenix  in  Kentucky,  a  rose  in  Ohio,  an 


74  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

anchor  in  New  Hampshire,  an  armorial  device  in 
Michigan,  a  sun  rising  over  the  water  in  Indiana 
and  Kansas  and  a  fountain  in  New  York.  That 
that  emblem  does  not  always  ensure  the  ballot  of 
an  Ignorant  voter  being  cast  according  to  his 
wishes  is  evident  from  the  story  of  a  new  voter 
in  New  York  state  who  at  a  recent  election  had 
one  desire  only  and  that  to  vote  wet.  He  looked 
for  the  wettest  emblem  he  could  find  and  voted 
the  straight  ticket  listed  under  the  fountain — the 
emblem  of  the  Prohibition  party  in  that  state. 
Political  leaders  may  generally  be  said  to  have 
two  reasons  for  favoring  the  party  column  ticket. 
First,  because  with  it  ignorant  voters  make  fewer 
mistakes  in  following  out  their  instructions,  and 
second,  because  it  encourages  voting  the  straight 
ticket.  The  leader  of  a  citizens'  good  government 
organization  in  congratulating  the  members  on 
the  results  of  a  recent  campaign,  said  that  it  was 
an  achievement  worthy  of  a  lifetime  to  have 
taught  four  hundred  thousand  voters  to  split  their 
ticket.  It  is  this  disposition  to  vote  against  in- 
efficient or  undesirable  candidates  on  a  ticket, 
which  pohtical  bosses  fight. 

The  office  column  ballot,  whch  was  the  original 
form  of  the  Australian  ballot,  lists  the  names  of 
candidates  under  the  offices  to  be  filled  with  no 
distinguishing  mark  other  than  the  name  of  the 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  75 

party  to  which  each  belongs.  Those  who  support 
this  system  value  it  as  requiring  a  higher  grade 
of  intelligence  in  the  voters,  although  the  neces- 
sity of  reading  this  ballot  is  evaded  by  political 
leaders  who  give  stencils  to  illiterates.  These 
stencils  are  laid  flat  on  the  ballots  and  have  cut- 
out places  indicating  the  names  of  the  candi- 
dates which  are  to  be  marked. 

Some  states  modify  this  system  still  further 
and  eliminate  even  the  name  of  the  party  follow- 
ing that  of  the  candidate.  This  is  done  for  two 
purposes.  In  the  West  the  intent  is  to  make  elec- 
tions non-partisan  and  to  put  the  choice  of  can- 
didates on  individual  merit  instead  of  party 
considerations.  In  some  parts  of  the  South  the 
purpose  is  to  make  it  more  diflicult  for  negro  vot- 
ers to  pick  out  the  names  of  their  party  candi- 
dates. There  are  other  devices  also  intended  to 
confuse  the  negro  voters,  among  them  the  use  of 
a  large  number  of  ballot  boxes  at  each  polling 
place.  One  box  will  be  for  the  county  vote,  an- 
other for  the  congressional,  another  for  the  state 
and  still  another  for  the  federal,  the  boxes  some- 
times being  multiplied  up  to  the  number  of 
twelve.  If  the  voter  puts  his  county  ballot  in  the 
state  box  or  his  state  ballot  in  the  congressional 
box  or  his  congressional  ballot  in  the  federal  box, 


76  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

he  loses  it.  Since  it  requires  some  study  to  get  the 
right  ballot  in  the  right  box,  undesirable  voters, 
or  those  considered  undesirable  by  the  election 
officials  may  readily  be  disfranchised. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MACHINERY  OF  ELECTIONS 

When  Elections  are  Held. — In  all  states  na- 
tional elections  for  the  choice  of  President  and 
Vice-President  are  held  on  the  Tuesday  after 
the  first  Monday  in  November  every  four  years. 
In  most  states  elections  of  representatives  in  Con- 
gress take  place  on  the  same  date  every  two  years. 
Elections  for  state  officials  usually  take  place  on 
the  same  date  as  national  elections,  although  often 
in  different  years.  There  are  some  exceptions, 
including  Maine,  which  has  the  state  and  congres- 
sional elections  both  in  September;  Arkansas 
which  has  its  state  election  in  September ;  Georgia 
in  October ;  and  Louisiana  in  April. 

There  is  still  further  disposition  to  separate 
the  municipal  from  state  and  national  elections, 
so  that  questions  of  outside  policies  will  not  con- 
trol the  choice  of  municipal  candidates.  In  order 
to  minimize  still  further  the  influence  of  party 
policies,  some  states  separate  the  election  of 
judges  from  federal  or  state  elections. 

77 


78  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

Preceding  every  election  due  notification 
must  always  be  given  of  the  time  and  place,  the 
offices  to  be  filled,  and  any  questions  of  policy  to 
be  submitted  to  the  voters. 

When  property  owning  was  the  principal 
qualification  for  voting,  it  was  often  the  custom 
to  have  elections  for  the  same  officials  on  different 
days,  so  that  a  man  might  vote  once  in  every  dis- 
trict where  he  owned  property.  It  was  found 
that  under  this  system  political  leaders  moved 
their  entire  staffs  from  district  to  district. 
Speakers,  literature,  organizers,  and  checkbooks, 
especially  checkbooks,  made  the  rounds  of  the 
districts;  and,  since  the  results  of  the  preceding 
days  might  be  learned,  political  leaders  would  go 
to  any  lengths  to  swing  the  number  of  votes  re- 
quired to  carry  an  election.  This  has  led  to  the 
present  disposition  to  unite  on  one  day  all  elec- 
tions in  which  the  same  candidates  or  policies  are 
to  be  voted  upon. 

Eligibility  of  Voters. — While  it  is  customary 
to  speak  of  the  *right  to  vote,'  as  a  matter  of 
practice  suffrage  is  given  not  as  a  question  of  in- 
dividual right  alone,  but  to  those  who  are  able  to 
exercise  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  state.  Voting  is 
the  machinery  set  up  by  the  state  for  carrying 
forward  its  own  existence.  The  right  to  partici- 
pate in  that  machinery  is  no  more  inherent  in 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  79 

every  resident  regardless  of  ability,  than  is  the 
right  to  serve  as  governor,  as  member  of  a  legis- 
lature, or  as  commissioner  of  education. 

All  states  restrict  the  right  to  vote  to  citizens 
twenty-one  years  old.  All  states  require  the 
voter  to  have  been  a  resident  for  a  stated  period, 
the  time  varying  from  six  months  to  two  years. 
Most  states  require  voters  to  be  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  A  section  of  the  middle  western 
states  stretching  from  the  Canadian  border  to  the 
gulf,  originally  permitted  aliens  who  had  not 
taken  out  their  final  citizenship  papers  to  vote, 
but  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  this  provision 
became  general  with  the  outbreak  of  the  world 
war  and,  as  a  result,  it  has  been  practically  done 
away  with.  Certain  classes  of  persons  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  franchise,  chief  among  them  the 
insane,  idiots,  paupers  and  convicted  criminals. 
Formerly  New  York  excluded  those  convicted  of 
betting  on  an  election,  Idaho  and  JMisrfssippi 
those  proved  to  have  committed  bigamy,  while 
Virginia  disfranchised  duellists. 

Some  states  still  require  the  payment  of  a  poll 
tax.  There  is  an  increasing  number  of  those 
which  provide  for  a  literacy  test.  Connecticut 
was  the  first  to  require  voters  to  be  able  to  read 
and  write,  establishing  the  provision  in  1855. 
The  first  of  the  southern  states  to  attempt  to  re- 


80  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

duce  its  number  of  negro  voters  by  a  literacy  test 
was  Mississippi,  which  in  1890  set  up  the  require- 
ment that  a  voter  must  be  able  to  read  the  state 
constitution  or  understand  it  when  read  by  an 
election  officer.  South  Carolina  made  a  similar 
ruling  five  years  later,  excepting,  however,  those 
who  own  at  least  $300  worth  of  property.  Sev- 
eral other  southern  states  exempted  from  the  lit- 
eracy test  those  who  were  voters  in  1867,  when 
the  negroes  were  still  disfranchised,  the  descend- 
ants of  those  who  were  voters  in  1867,  and  those 
who  served  in  the  army  and  na\y  during  the 
Civil  War.  Such  exceptions,  which  operated  in 
the  favor  of  white  voters  who  were  illiterate,  led 
to  considerable  controversy  in  other  parts  of  the 
country  and  the  provision  relating  to  voters  of 
1867,  termed  the  Grandfather  clause,  was  in  1915 
declared  unconstitutional  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court. 

Election  Officials. — ^Election  commissioners, 
or  county  and  city  clerks,  are  required  to  provide 
requisites  for  elections.  It  is  their  duty  to  see 
that  the  selected  buildings  are  open  and  ready 
for  polls,  that  the  registration  or  enrollment 
books  for  the  district,  ballot  boxes,  printed  bal- 
lots, pencils,  pens,  ink  and  other  supplies  are  on 
hand.  At  each  polling  place  there  is  a  corps  of 
election   judges    or    inspectors,    poll    clerks,    or 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  81 

counters,  and  ballot  clerks.  Most  of  these  offi- 
cials secure  their  appointment  through  the  in- 
fluence of  district  political  party  leaders  and  as 
such  may  naturally  be  expected  to  favor  the  for- 
tunes of  the  particular  party  through  which  they 
have  secured  their  appointment.  In  addition 
each  party  is  entitled  to  one  or  more  watchers, 
or  challengers,  to  protect  their  party's  interests. 
There  is  also  a  policeman  to  see  that  electioneer- 
ing is  not  carried  on  within  a  certain  number  of 
feet  of  the  polling  place,  that  order  is  maintained, 
and  that  the  ordinary  rules  of  election  procedure 
are  obeyed. 

Election  officials  are  paid  for  their  work  by 
the  government,  since  they  are  responsible  for  the 
actual  conduct  of  elections.  Party  watchers  or 
challengers  are  supposed  to  be  volunteers.  Their 
work  is  to  prevent  dishonesty,  to  watch  for  fraud 
and  to  challenge  'when  they  detect  it,  to  see  that 
the  attention  of  the  precinct  judges  is  called  to 
any  such  matter,  and  in  case  of  an  unsatisfactory 
decision  from  them,  to  carry  the  matter  to  the 
election  commissioners  or  the  courts.  The  citizen 
who  is  interested  primarily  in  honest  elections 
may  not  find  it  easy  to  obtain  a  watcher's  certifi- 
cate from  one  of  the  dominant  parties,  but  the 
minority  parties,  certain  good  citizenship  organi- 
zations and  those  who  are  interested  in  pending 


82  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

referenda  welcome  such  assistance  and  are  glad 
to  grant  certificates  even  though  the  citizen  may 
not  be  directly  allied  with  them. 

Importance  of  Election  Watchers. — The 
party  watcher  has  a  task  the  importance  of  which 
cannot  be  too  much  stressed.  There  could  never 
be  a  corrupt  election  if  honest  citizens  went  as 
watchers  to  every  polling  place  and  stayed  there 
the  entire  day.  If  the  polls  open  at  six  o'clock 
it  is  no  good  to  arrive  at  a  quarter  after  six. 
Enough  ballots  may  be  put  into  the  box  by  that 
time  to  overturn  the  entire  election.  If  there  is 
no  one  to  substitute  for  him,  the  watcher  should 
not  leave  the  polls  for  luncheon  or  dinner.  In  his 
absence  enough  ballots  may  be  destroyed  to  de- 
termine the  outcome.  If  the  count  proceeds  all 
night,  and  the  watcher  leaves  one  minute  before 
it  is  concluded,  the  figures  entered  in  ink,  the 
boxes  sealed  and  given  into  the  custody  of  the  po- 
lice guard,  he  might  as  well  have  stayed  away  en- 
tirely. 

Due  partly  to  the  violence  which  has  attended 
elections  in  the  past  and  the  unpleasant  character 
of  many  of  the  polling  places,  citizens  of  the  so- 
called  'better  class'  have  been  reluctant  to  under- 
take the  work  of  election  officials  and  watchers. 
The  last  few  years  have  witnessed  an  improve- 
ment both  in  the  character  of  the  polls  and  the  or- 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  83 

der  which  is  maintained  there;  and  the  granting 
of  suffrage  to  women  has  made  necessary  still 
further  reforms.  As  a  result,  today  there  is  less 
excuse  for  shirking  this  duty  and  every  reason 
for  all  good  citizens  to  feel  that  it  is  their  particu- 
lar responsibility. 

Registration. — The  first  difficulty  in  insuring 
an  honest  election  comes  with  the  registration  of 
the  voters.  In  the  United  States  the  custom  has 
been  to  require  personal  registration,  that  is,  that 
every  voter  shall  come  on  stated  days  before  the 
election  officials,  sign  his  name,  give  his  address 
and  age,  and  answer  a  few  other  simple  questions 
which  will  help  to  identify  him  when  he  comes 
later  to  cast  his  vote  and  to  prevent  a  dishonest 
person  from  claiming  his  registration  and  voting 
in  his  stead.  Some  states  have  elaborated  upon 
these  requirements  and  demand  that  a  personal 
description  of  the  registrant  be  entered  on  the 
books,  giving  the  color  of  hair  and  eyes,  heighth 
and  any  other  personal  characteristics  which 
would  make  identification  more  certain. 

Especially  in  the  country  districts  where  per- 
sonal registration  makes  a  long  journey  neces- 
sary there  is  an  increasing  disposition  to  admit 
registration  by  proxy  or  by  mail.  Latterly  some 
states  have  passed  laws  permitting  traveling  men 
or  others  necessarily  absent  from  home,  or  those 


84  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

who  are  ill,  to  send  their  registration  by  mail. 
This  system  has  been  objected  to  on  the  ground 
that  lack  of  personal  identification  by  watchers 
gives  greater  opportunity  for  dishonest  election 
officials  to  "pad  the  rolls"  with  names  of  persons 
who  have  not  registered  and  will  not  vote,  but 
whose  names  are  thus  at  the  disposal  of  false  vot- 
ers on  election  day. 

Some  states  require  registration  to  be  renewed 
every  year  or  two  by  the  voters.  Others  follow 
the  practice  of  "once  on  always  on."  In  states 
where  this  permanent  registration  exists,  names 
of  men  who  have  moved  away  or  who  are  deceased 
may  be  carried  for  years  on  the  books  in  order 
that  substitutes  may  be  voted  in  their  place  on 
election  day.  In  close  elections  political  party 
leaders  have  even  been  known  to  make  use  of  this 
method  by  copying  into  the  registration  books 
lists  of  names  from  telephone  or  city  directories. 

There  is  a  constant  protest  against  undue  in- 
convenience to  the  voters  concerning  registration. 
It  is  difficult,  however,  to  make  registration  easy 
for  the  voters  and  at  the  same  time  to  safeguard 
it  properly  as  a  means  of  tabulating  honest  vot- 
ing lists. 


CHAPTER  III 

TYPES   OF  ELECTION   FRAUD 

Fraud. — If  the  representatives  of  the  two  par- 
ties on  the  election  boards  are  in  collusion  no  law 
can  insure  honest  elections.  This  is  the  real  dif- 
ficulty underlying  all  election  reform.  A  woman 
watcher  tells  of  seeing  not  only  the  poll  clerks, 
but  the  judges  and  watchers  of  both  parties  in 
one  precinct  working  in  unison  for  the  election 
of  five  of  the  ten  candidates  for  city  commission- 
ers. Although  election  literature  is  prohibited  in 
all  polling  places,  the  walls  of  this  particular  one 
were  covered  with  posters  bearing  the  five  chosen 
names.  A  man  sat  in  the  center  of  the  polling 
place  all  day  wearing  on  his  coat  a  ribbon  with 
the  names  of  these  five  candidates  and  this  woman 
watcher  actually  saw  him  give  money  to  voters 
as  they  entered.  While  the  openness  with  which 
this  particular  fraud  was  carried  on  may  be  un- 
usual, there  is  clear  evidence  of  trickery  in  nearly 
every  election.  The  time  has  come  for  American 
voters  to  open  their  eyes  to  the  ways  by  which  their 

85 


86  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

will  is  constantly  nullified  and  control  over  them 
is  maintained  by  political  leaders.  The  frauds 
which  are  practised  may  be  listed  under  three 
heads,  according  as  they  are  accomplished  through 
force,  bribery,  or  trickery. 

Frauds  by  Force. — It  has  already  been  said 
that  frauds  by  force  are  less  prevalent  today 
than  they  have  been  in  the  past.  And  yet  within 
the  last  few  years  *thugs'  from  outside  the  state 
were  imported  to  swing  a  Pennsylvania  election. 
They  took  possession  of  the  polls,  voted  in  place 
of  the  legally  qualified  voters,  and  by  violence  in- 
timidated all  who  tried  to  stop  them.  Owners  of 
large  estates,  employers  of  great  numbers  of 
men  and  political  leaders  in  control  of  patronage 
still  march  up  to  the  polls  the  men  under  them 
to  vote  according  to  their  instructions. 

Fraud  by  Bribery.—  The  buying  and  selling 
of  votes  is  the  most  prevalent  and  widely  known 
known  method  of  defeating  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority. There  are  precincts  where  money  is 
openly  paid  to  the  voters  by  political  leaders. 
Recently  in  Chicago  a  ballot  when  unfolded  by 
the  election  counters  revealed  a  five-dollar  bill 
which  had  been  handed  to  the  voter  and  which  he 
had  evidently  forgotten  to  remove.  In  some  sec- 
tions it  is  the  habit  for  political  leaders  working 
at  the  polls  to  distribute  checks  of  various  kinds; 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  87 

or  in  the  south,  chestnuts,  which  are  redeemed  by 
the  party  cashier  for  two  or  five  or  ten  dollars — 
whatever  rate  has  been  agreed  upon  as  the  price 
to  be  paid  each  voter  in  that  section.  Political 
leaders  can  tell  almost  to  a  dollar  the  sum  needed 
to  buy  enough  votes  to  swing  the  election  of  a 
road  commissioner,  or  a  mayor,  or  whatever  the 
official  may  be.  In  one  small  city  this  system 
was  recently  imperiled  by  a  bitter  controversy 
between  the  two  dominant  parties,  in  which  the 
price  of  votes  was  run  up  so  high  that  the  leaders 
finally  came  together  and  made  an  agreement  to 
buy  no  more  votes.  Whereupon  the  men  who  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  selling  their  votes  nominated 
a  ticket  of  their  own  and  elected  it.  The  political 
leaders  immediately  restored  the  old  system. 

Fraud  by  Trickery.— There  are  many  tricks 
by  which  political  leaders  juggle  elections.  One 
of  the  most  common  is  repeating.  Men  are  em- 
ployed to  vote  as  many  times  as  they  can  in  each 
precinct.  For  this  purpose  the  registration  lists 
are  padded  by  the  officials  with  names  which  will 
not  be  claimed  by  actual  voters.  Lists  of  these 
fictitious  names  are  given  to  the  repeaters,  who 
may  then  vote  in  place  of  a  man  who  has  moved 
away,  or  died,  or  gone  on  a  visit  to  Maine  or  Cali- 
fornia. Sometimes  the  repeater  may  claim  the 
name  of  a  man  who  intends  to  vote  later  in  the 


88  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

day.  In  one  such  case  the  election  officials  threat- 
ened to  throw  the  rightful  voter  out  of  the  polls  if 
he  did  not  go  away  quietly  and  when  he  continued 
to  assert  his  right  to  vote,  they  did  actually  put 
him  out  into  the  street.  In  a  recent  investigation 
in  Kansas  City  one  man  confessed  to  having 
voted  thirty-seven  times  at  one  election  and  to 
knowing  forty  other  men  who  voted  as  many 
times. 

Colonizing  is  another  fraud.  Some  states  re- 
quire registration  many  months  preceding  elec- 
tions. Others  accept  a  very  brief  registration,  or 
permit  men  who  move  from  one  district  to  an- 
other to  change  their  registration  up  to  a  few  days 
preceding  election.  Such  states  open  the  way  to 
bringing  in  men  from  outside,  who  register,  vote 
in  large  numbers  and  are  gone  within  a  few  days. 
It  has  even  been  established  that  in  states  close  to 
the  Canadian  border  where  the  registration  days 
have  been  close  to  election,  party  leaders  have 
brought  over  'colonies'  of  Canadians  to  vote. 

The  giving  of  misinformation  is  a  very  easy 
way  to  trick  voters.  A  citizen  may  be  told  that 
he  cannot  vote  at  a  certain  precinct  and  unless 
he  protests  his  rights,  he  may  be  induced  to  go 
away  and  not  vote  at  all,  thus  leaving  his  regis- 
tration to  T)e  used  by  some  one  else.  Voters  are 
frequently  advised  that  they  are  not  permitted  to 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  89 

split  the  ticket,  or  are  warned  that  if  they  do 
attempt  it  they  will  make  such  mistakes  that  their 
ballot  will  certainly  be  thrown  out.  Watchers 
have  been  put  out  of  polling  places  for  advising 
voters  that  it  was  permissable  to  split  party  tick- 
ets, thus  leaving  the  field  to  those  who  were  ad- 
vising that  it  was  prohibited.  One  woman  in 
Pennsylvania  has  told  how  an  election  official  to 
whom  she  appealed  for  information  so  that  she 
might  vote  against  one  party,  told  her  to  "scratch 
it  by  making  a  cross  under  its  emblem."  The 
woman  did  as  she  was  told,  thereby  casting  a 
straight  vote  for  the  party  she  wished  to  defeat. 

Some  states  permit  illiterate  voters  to  receive 
aid  in  casting  their  votes  from  one  representative 
of  each  of  the  two  dominant  parties.  Where 
these  representatives  are  in  collusion,  the  will  of 
the  voter  may  be  frustrated,  for  they  have  been 
known  to  mark  the  ballot  in  an  entirely  opposite 
way  from  the  one  indicated  by  the  voter. 

So  it  is  that  ballots  may  be  perverted  before 
they  are  cast.  But  there  are  also  ways  of  cheat- 
ing honest,  informed  citizens  who  think  that  once 
their  ballots  are  properly  deposited  in  the  box 
they  can  go  home  sure  that  their  duty  is 
well  performed.  Ballots  have  been  stolen  from 
boxes.  In  a  recent  New  York  City  election  one 
large  bundle  of  voted  ballots  properly  marked 


90  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

with  the  precinct  in  which  they  were  east  was 
picked  up  from  a  nearby  gutter.  A  Pennsyl- 
vania woman  watcher  has  reported  the  use  of  such 
small  boxes  that  ballots  overflowed  to  the  floor, 
were  opened  and  destroyed.  And  a  woman 
watcher  in  another  state  who  overheard  plans 
laid  to  destroy  a  certain  number  of  ballots  dur- 
ing the  count  literally  sat  upon  them  until  an- 
other woman  could  get  help  to  protect  them. 

Dishonest  officials  may  easily  cheat  while  the 
ballots  are  being  handled  in  the  count.  It  is 
easy  to  make  a  little  tear  in  a  ballot  as  it  is  being 
opened,  any  such  torn  ballots  being  thrown  out. 
*Shortpencilling'  is  resorted  to  by  holding  in  the 
clenched  fist  a  very  short  pencil  with  the  lead 
downward.  By  this  means  marks  may  be  made 
which  deface  a  ballot  and  result  in  its  being 
thrown  out.  Or  a  straight  ticket  may  be  split  in 
this  wise.  In  some  states  the  law  permits  a  voter 
to  make  a  check  under  the  emblem  of  his  party 
and  then  if  he  desires  to  mark  the  names  of  two 
or  three  candidates  on  the  opposing  ticket,  his 
ballot  is  counted  as  being  cast  for  all  the  candi- 
dates under  the  emblem  he  has  marked  except 
those  for  whom  he  has  voted  on  the  opposing 
ticket.  In  such  states  the  dishonest  counter  who 
'shortpencils,'  makes  checks  on  ballots  and  thus 
increases  the  votes  for  certain  candidates  in  whom 
he  is  particularly  interested. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SOME   SUGGESTED   REMEDIES 

Compulsory  Voting. — A  number  of  foreign 
countries  are  now  having  their  registration  lists 
of  all  those  eligible  to  vote  made  up  by  the  gov- 
ernment itself,  thus  doing  away  with  the  inde- 
pendent registration  by  voters  themselves. 
Along  with  this  plan  usually  proceeds  compul- 
sory voting.  That  means  that  all  those  whose 
names  are  on  the  lists  are  required  to  vote,  unless 
they  can  prove  unavoidable  absence  or  illness. 
In  this  country  where  compulsory  voting  has  been 
agitated,  it  has  been  opposed  as  an  infringement 
of  personal  liberty  and  it  has  been  said  that  those 
who  are  too  indifferent  to  vote  would  not  have 
any  opinion  on  public  affairs  worth  recording. 
On  the  other  hand  those  with  experience  with  the 
system  urge  that  it  does  secure  the  votes  of  many 
good  citizens  who  have  not  previously  been  awake 
to  their  duty  to  the  state. 

Changes  in  the  Form  of  the  Ballot. —  The 
abolition  of  the  party  emblem  on  ballots  is  urged 

91 


92  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

as  a  means  of  requiring  voters  to  exercise  more 
intelligence  and  thought  in  picking  out  candi- 
dates. It  is  also  argued  that  so  long  as  voters 
by  making  a  single  mark  can  cast  a  ballot  for  their 
straight  party  ticket,  many  will  do  this  to  save 
themselves  trouble,  whereas  if  they  are  required 
to  mark  each  name  separately  they  will  be  more 
likely  to  consider  the  merits  of  candidates  on  op- 
posing tickets. 

The  length  of  the  average  ballot  also  conspires 
to  the  casting  of  a  straight  vote  by  the  citizen 
who  has  not  time  enough  alloted  to  him  to  mark 
each  name  separately.  The  remedy  suggested 
for  this  is  the  short  ballot  already  in  use  in  some 
states.  On  the  short  ballot  there  appear  only  the 
names  of  the  more  important  candidates,  so  that 
this  change  operates  not  only  to  save  time  for  the 
voter  but  to  center  upon  the  leading  officials  re- 
sponsibility for  the  appointment  of  minor  officials 
now  usually  chosen  by  election. 

Proportional  Representation. — :To  make  ef- 
fective the  will  of  the  majority  proportional  rep- 
resentation is  now  used  in  most  European  coun- 
tries and  in  some  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Under  our  present  scheme  of  elections  one  of  sev- 
eral candidates  who  himself  receives  less  than  a 
majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  at  the  election  may 
be  declared  the  victor.    Also  the  control  of  po- 


The  Voter  at  the  Polls  93 

litical  leaders  is  a  strong  factor  in  the  choice  of 
nominees  in  the  primaries  and  candidates  at  the 
elections.  Proportional  Representation  is  said  to 
insm*e  both  the  triumph  of  the  candidates  with 
an  actual  majority  of  votes  and  to  make  more 
likely  the  election  of  independents.  There  are 
various  modifications  of  proportional  representa- 
tion in  use,  all  of  which,  however,  depend  upon 
the  preferential  ballot.  On  the  preferential  bal- 
lot the  voter  records  not  only  his  first,  but  his  sec- 
ond, or  third  choice,  in  fact  as  many  choices  as  he 
likes.  When  the  ballots  are  counted,  if  the  can- 
didate named  as  first  choice  has  no  chance  of  win- 
ning a  majority,  the  vote  is  transferred  to  the  sec- 
ond choice.  If  the  candidate  named  as  second 
choice  has  no  chance  of  winning,  the  vote  is  trans- 
ferred to  third  choice  and  so  on. 

The  Voting  Machine.— Two  remedies  are 
advanced  to  do  awa}^  with  trickery  in  counting. 
One  is  the  use  of  voting  machines  which  are  not 
so  easy  of  manipulation  by  dishonest  officials  as 
are  paper  ballots,  and  which  automatically  regis- 
ter totals  so  that  the  returns  are  immediately 
known  and  there  can  be  no  withholding  of  returns 
from  one  district  to  falsify  them  according  to  the 
need  disclosed  by  the  results  in  other  districts. 
The  other  remedy  is  the  public  counting  of  votes, 
that  is  the  sending  of  the  sealed  ballot  boxes  to 


94  The  Voter  at  the  Polls 

one  central  place  where  the  counting  may  be 
watched  by  all  interested  citizens. 

Some  Additional  Changes. — There  is  some- 
thing certainly  wrong  with  the  electoral  system 
when  only  fifteen  per  cent,  of  those  entitled  to 
vote  go  to  the  polls  as  was  the  case  recently  in  one 
state.  There  are  some  very  apparent  ways  of  be- 
ginning the  reform.  So  long  as  voters  are  penal- 
ized by  being  obliged  to  wait  in  line  outside  for 
an  hour  or  two,  sometimes  in  the  pouring  rain, 
and  then  to  hold  their  noses  against  the  smells 
within  for  another  fifteen  minutes  before  they 
can  deposit  their  ballots,  there  is  bound  to  be 
some  disinclination  to  vote.  Better  polling 
places,  the  use  of  churches  and  schools  instead  of 
stables  and  shops,  would  remedy  that. 

More  vital,  of  course,  are  the  more  or  less  hid- 
den frauds  whose  well  known  practise  has  dis- 
couraged individual  voters  and  made  them  feel 
that  their  efforts  were  worthless.  Legal  means 
have  been  suggested  to  better  these  conditions. 
But  the  only  really  efficacious  way  of  dealing  with 
the  situation  is  for  honest  citizens  who  desire  hon- 
est elections  to  go  to  the  polls*  as  election  officials 
and  watchers.  One  such  person  to  each  precinct 
would  quickly  end  the  corruption  of  elections. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

J2,  This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


29MAR'60ER 


REC'D  LD 


MAR  23  1980 


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LD  21A-50r«-4,'59 
(A1724sl0)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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(E1602elO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


